The Study of Sound Change 1870-1970
A fully funded, three-year PhD studentship is
available in the Department of English Language
and Linguistics at the University of Sheffield
from the summer of 2001. The studentship will
cover all fees and provide a maintenance grant
in line with national Research Council grants
(currently �6800 per annum).
The Project
Linguistics in the nineteenth century focused on
language change and, as the century progressed,
predominantly on sound change. The received view
is that sound change then became marginalised by
the twentieth-century emphasis on synchronic
linguistics. This is partly true, and historical
phonology has been much ignored by twentieth-
century phonologists, some explicitly denying it
a place in modern phonology. It is partly untrue
as there has been a productive tradition of
historical phonology building on the theories of
the so-called 'Neogrammarians', and in fact the
linguistic 'rules' formalised by the Generative
phonologists of the 1960s were clearly analogous
to the sound 'laws' stated a century before.
The objectives of the project are as follows:
1 to chart the history of the study of sound
change from the 'Neogrammarians' at the outset
of the 20th century up to the work of the
'Generativists' who dominated the century's
final decades
2 to assess whether the received view of the
development of linguistic theory is a fair one,
based on a specific linguistic topic
3 to explain why and how sound change has
become marginal when a century ago it was
probably the central concern of linguistics
Arrangements for supervision
The successful candidate will be a member of the
Department of English Language and Linguistics
which forms part of the School of English. The
department has recently undergone a period of
development, broadening from a focus primarily
on the English language and its history to
include linguistics in both teaching and
research, and this project is designed to
reflect the two sides to the department, the
historical and the linguistic. The successful
candidate will be well supported by academic
staff and other postgraduate students alike. The
project will be jointly supervised by Dr Andrew
Linn and Prof. April McMahon. More information
about the department may be found at:
http://www.shef.ac.uk/english/language .
Requirements
Applications are sought from candidates with a
linguistics background at undergraduate or
master's level. Knowledge of historical
linguistics, phonology and the history of
linguistics is desirable, but in-depth knowledge
of all three areas is not compulsory, and any
necessary training will be provided. The precise
period studied and the approach taken to the
investigation is negotiable depending on the
successful candidate's particular interests and
capabilities. To discuss the project informally,
please contact:
Andrew Linn (+ 44 (0)114 222 0216 -
A.R.Linnshef.ac.uk)
or April McMahon (+44 (0)114 222 0238 -
April.McMahonshef.ac.uk).
Applications should be submitted by Friday 6
April. An application form may be found at:
http://www.shef.ac.uk/~gradsch/Recruitment/ApplicationForm/index.html .
________________________________________________
Dr Andrew R. Linn
Department of English Language and Linguistics
The University of Sheffield
GB-Sheffield S10 2TN, England
Tel: +44 (0)114 222 0216
Fax: +44 (0)114 276 8251
http://www.shef.ac.uk/english/language/staff/andrew.html